To energize automotive heaters, for example, which operate through fuel combustion or electric heating, various controls are known in the art which are concerned with on/off timing and the level of heating power (as well as the distribution of the latter). A current type of heating control is an on/off control in which the heater is switched on when the temperature of the article to be heated lies under a set value, and is switched off when its temperature lies above the set value. It stands to reason that for different types and sizes of heaters, which take account of the terminal data, control facilities, etc. of the heaters concerned, different controllers are needed. This results in a wide variety of controllers, which makes it impossible to put the advantage of a large mass production to profitable use.